This is a decent sequel that suffers from a bit of Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez trying to top… Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. What They Say:
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For weaves together two of Frank Miller’s classic stories with new tales in which the town’s most hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more repulsive inhabitants. In Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Dwight is hunted down by the only woman he ever loved, Ava Lord, and then watches his life go straight to hell. Chronologically, this story takes place prior to “The Big Fat Kill” (featured in the film Frank Miller’s Sin City) and explains how Dwight came to have a dramatically different face.
The Review:
This is the second film based on a series of black&white graphic novels written and drawn by Frank Miller. Often written to emulate the feel of hard-boiled crime noir detective novels by Mickey Spillaine and Raymond Chandler, the Sin City comics occur in haphazard order, kind of like a Quentin Tarantino movie. The protagonist (usually a man) finds some sort of crime or other dangerous element he must face in this enormously corrupt city where he’ll invariably wind up in one of two places at some point: a country music strip club called Kadie’s or a section of the city called Old Town, which is ruled entirely by prostitutes (who deal their own brand of ruthless justice). The fun in connecting these books has been in looking for small eyecatches depicting certain events to show which characters are alive at the time. There have been five lengthy stories and several smaller comics as well.
Whereas 3 of the lengthy stories were adapted for the first film, this sequel only tackles one previously produced and a couple other short stories. It opens with Marv (Mickey Rourke) narrating the events of a Wizard ½ comic called “Sin City: Just Another Saturday Night,” which has him recalling why he’s standing around a set of dead bodies. Then we get to one of two original stories created for the movie. This first one shows a young man named Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who’s just hit town and wants to test his incredible skills in a poker game hosted by Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). The next original story catches up with saloon dancer Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) who has fallen into an emotional and physical spiral since the death of her protector Det. John Hartigan (Bruce Willis in the first film).
After those appetizers though, we’re served the main course of the evening: the adaptation of A Dame To Kill For. This story focuses on a photographer (Josh Brolin) who’s a bit of an action junkie. He’s got some psychological issues from a past we know little about. After finishing one job, he gets a call from a key member of that past in the form of the gorgeous Ava Lord (Eva Green). She inspires serious hate within our hero but but nonetheless, he can’t resist her when she needs help. Her fears seemingly are justified when the menacing Manute (Dennis Haysbert replacing the late Michael Clarke Duncan from the first film) makes his appearance.
This is actually where the quality of the movie shines best. The comic was a mostly strong storyline for the Sin City series, and is adapted pretty faithfully here. There’s some excellent digital effects and cinematography, especially when illuminating Eva Green, who gives the strongest performance of the entire movie. As much as Rourke was the standout of the first film, Green carries A Dame To Kill For a good bit here. She’s both compelling and over-the-top in an entertaining way. Brolin spends his time chewing scenery in an anger-and-grit sandwich, even in the cheesy parts. Rodriguez gets the most out of his cast and his visuals teams on this segment. Even with some of the cartoony aspects due to FX team rotoscopes and exaggerated action scenes, this section really plays out like a 40s crime noir and feels more like a complete story than the other connecting segments (due more in part to the fact that it’s not split up like the other stories but still this was designed to be the highlight of the movie and does succeed).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDW3r-yIKHU]
Also the overall casting is excellent. I hadn’t read up on exactly who was doing which role or anything so I had a fun time watching the opening sequence and mentally matching the actors and parts. It’s best to go in with little knowledge on this part. Some for whatever reason have been recast from the first film while other newcomers look just like the comic characters they’re emulating.
The screenplay though is where things suffer a bit, but strangely is decent. The first film had 3 stories that were all actually decent comics but were shortened for the screen so story elements were noticeably absent and didn’t play out entirely as well in their theatrical forms. However, when the director’s cut DVD was released with each individual segment was restored, everything played out a bit better. For this movie, with the shorter segments clearly leading to Dame as the centerpiece, the flow actually feels a bit better, but the shorter segments don’t measure up as much. The Johnny story does feel like something that could come from the comics, given how the characters usually end up. The Nancy segment though feels more like something that was more tacked on than a natural progression for the character. It’s also crazier than anything before but gives the film a bit of an anti-climactic ending, which brings down the movie as a whole and makes one hope for a Director’s Cut DVD.
Overall, I had a fun time watching this movie, but I’m more of a Sin City fan used to the Robert Rodriguez style from Machete and From Dusk Til Dawn as well as Frank Miller’s immaculate atmosphere in noir comic form. To the casual moviegoer who may not have seen any of these elements, I think they’ll learn quickly the kind of world this us from the opening Marv segment and be entertained by A Dame To Kill For’s story, but the overall film will likely be something to be an acquired taste so I’ll only be able to give a partial recommendation here.
Grade B-
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